If you love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.
Samuel Adams
1776
What is sad is that this Congress is in danger of becoming irrelevant. We are on the verge of ceding responsibility from the legislative branch to the judicial branch because we cannot stand up to [the] gun lobby. It is ironic and fitting that our inability to act in any way that satisfies the American people has spawned a series of lawsuits that could ultimately impose penalties on the gun industry far more severe than even the most ardent gun control supporters in Congress hope to achieve.
Charles E. Schumer
November 4, 1999
http://schumer.senate.gov/SchumerWebsite/pressroom/press_releases/PR00067.html
[Could this have been the turning point? The instant when we held the line and our attackers directed their attention to a perceived weakness in our flank?]
Liar: A lawyer with a roving commission.
Ambrose Bierce
The Devil’s Dictionary
Of course, small arms are not the root cause of conflict in these and other regions. We cannot ease every tension or prevent every fight. But we can help make bad situations better by doing more to ensure that arms do not fall into the wrong hands. We can help governments that want help to keep dangerous weapons off their streets. And we can make it harder for the forces of extremism and hate to get the weapons they need to carry out their destructive designs.
U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright
Remarks on the Occasion of Receiving the
International Rescue Committee Freedom Award
New York, New York, November 10, 1998
[That philosophy is working well in the Sudan right now, huh? And it worked well for Germany when they passed the Weapons Control Act of 1938 keeping guns out of the hands Jews. –Joe]
Another report is soon to be out and the results are as expected:
WASHINGTON — Screening at U.S. airports is no better now than before the 9/11 terrorist attacks, according to a member of the U.S. House of Representatives who was briefed Friday about an investigation conducted by the Government Accountability Office and one by the Homeland Security Department.
“A lot of people will be shocked at the billions of dollars we’ve spent and the results they’re going to see,” said Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., chairman of the House aviation subcommittee.
Improving the ability to find dangerous materials has been a top goal of the U.S. Transportation Security Administration since it took over the security task at about 450 airports in early 2002. More than 45,000 people were hired.
Oregon Rep. Peter DeFazio, the ranking Democrat on the aviation subcommittee, also was briefed on the two reports, which are to be released within a month.
…
The TSA, which did not immediately return telephone calls Friday seeking comment, has said in the past that the tests used to measure screener performance are much more rigorous than they were before the Sept. 11 hijackings.
Since then, screeners have been much more aggressive about seizing prohibited items. Each month, screeners confiscate about a half-million objects from passengers, including, on average, 160,000 knives, 2,000 box cutters and 70 guns.
Although they will claim they just need more money for training and better equipment the real problem is that it’s an unsolvable problem from this approach. There are better solutions available but they are politically unacceptable.
At the NRA convention last week one news organization managed to take a few Ted Nugent quotes out of context and make him sound a bit on the extreme side:
HOUSTON (AP) – With an assault weapon in each hand, rocker and gun rights advocate Ted Nugent urged National Rifle Association members to be “hardcore, radical extremists demanding the right to self defense.”
Speaking at the NRA’s annual convention Saturday, Nugent said each NRA member should try to enroll 10 new members over the next year and associate only with other members.
“Let’s next year sit here and say, ‘Holy smokes, the NRA has 40 million members now,'” he said. “No one is allowed at our barbecues unless they are an NRA member. Do that in your life.”
Nugent sang and played a guitar painted with red and white stripes for the crowd at Houston’s downtown convention center.
He drew the most cheers when he told gun owners they should never give up their right to bear arms and should use their guns to protect themselves if needed.
“Remember the Alamo! Shoot ’em!” he screamed to applause. “To show you how radical I am, I want carjackers dead. I want rapists dead. I want burglars dead. I want child molesters dead. I want the bad guys dead. No court case. No parole. No early release. I want ’em dead. Get a gun and when they attack you, shoot ’em.”
Of course almost every gun rights activist knows the NRA is the gun owners organization most likely to hand over our rights on a silver platter to victim disarmament crowd and cannot considered radical. And even though I disagree with the philosophy of only associating with NRA members the world would be a safer and better place if the anti-freedom biogots of the world like Henry Boitel were in the mental wards rather than the Ted Nugents as Henry suggests would be appropriate.
Florida’s bill, soon to become law, which explicitly says you may use deadly force to defend yourself from serious injury or death is being called a “right to murder” bill by the anti-freedom people:
“It’s literally mind-boggling in its audacity,” said Arthur Hayhoe of Wesley Chapel, president of the Florida Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. “If I make a mistake, all I have to do is repeat the NRA’s magic words: “I feel threatened.’ ” I call this the “right-to-murder’ bill.”
I suspect the real problem is that Mr. Hayhoe is feeling threatened. After this law has been in effect for a couple of years and the crime statistics come in he will loose all traction with the population at large. He will be like the crazy guy predicting the end of the world on the street corner. No one will pay him any attention and that will be a very uncomfortable position to be in. And of course after making these crazy predictions of the end of the world and being proved wrong he will make even more predictions and push his crazy, disproven viewpoint even more. It must really suck to be an anti-freedom fighter these days.
The correct way to punctuate a sentence that starts: “Of course it is none of my business but–” is to place a period after the word “but.” Don’t use excessive force in supplying such moron with a period. Cutting his throat is only a momentary pleasure and is bound to get you talked about.
Robert Heinlein
It is a natural impossibility that a government should have a right to punish men for their vices; because it is impossible that a government should have any rights, except such as the individuals composing it previously had, as individuals. They could not delegate to a government any rights which they did not themselves possess. They could not contribute to the government any rights, except such as they themselves possessed as individuals. Now, nobody but a fool or an impostor pretends that he, as an individual, has a right to punish other men for their vices. But anybody and everybody have a natural right, as individuals, to punish other men for their crimes; for everybody has a natural right, not only to defend his own person and property against aggressors, but also to go to the assistance and defense of everybody else, whose person or property is invaded. The natural right of each individual to defend his own person and property against an aggressor, and to go to the assistance and defense of every one else whose person or property is invaded, is a right without which men could not exist on the earth. And government has no rightful existence, except in so far as it embodies, and is limited by, this natural right of individuals.
Lysander Spooner
From: Vices Are Not Crimes
From the Toronto Star: $1B gun registry branded `useless’. And some critics think the true cost is pushing $2 B now. The proponents have been feeding the monster money “under the table”. Alphecca has quotes and an analysis of the Star article. One thing he didn’t mention was this:
Alex Swann, spokesman for Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan, who is responsible for public safety and emergency preparedness, defended the registry.
“Obviously, no measure can strip away all risk in society, but the gun registry is a frequently used tool for police,” Swann said.
He said he could not discuss Roszko’s specific case, but emphasized gun registration ensures accountability for guns, and tightens ownership. That can help track the transport of guns, he said, including whether legally registered guns are moving into the hands of those who are not licensed.
Swann said police make about 2,000 queries on the firearms database every day.
Two thousand queries a day does not make people safer. The only valid objective of restrictions on firearms ownership is to make people safer. The defenders of the registry don’t make that claim. Reporters and the general public should be asking just one question. When the defenders of the registry stammer, pause, and avoid the question they should be given the same sort of treatment one would give any other con artist that defrauds the public of over a billion dollars. The Canadian people wasted that money in an experiment to answer a question. We have the answer now. Let just hope the politicians in this country can learn from the billion dollar mistakes of others.
I like having a very direct and very powerful impact on worker safety and health. If you put out a reg, it matters. I think that’s really where the thrill comes from. And it is a thrill; it’s a high… I love it; I absolutely love it. I was born to regulate. I don’t know why, but that’s very true. So as long as I’m regulating, I’m happy.
Marthe Kent
OSHA director of safety standards program.
National Review’s Internet Update
June 26, 2000
Kathleen Antrim at The San Francisco Examiner tells how Micheal Moore is reaping that which he has sown:
“He was at every Oscar party and screening,” said Moore’s former manager Douglas Urbanski, a critically acclaimed 25-year veteran of the entertainment industry most recently known for the movie “The Contender,” starring Gary Oldman, Joan Allen and Jeff Bridges. “He took out full page ads, cut his hair, bathed and even wore a suit. [Moore was] very present around town.”
But the Hollywood elite turned up their surgically sculpted noses at Moore’s flick. Urbanski explained that Hollywood has had it with Moore. Many blame him for provoking conservative voters and contributing to John Kerry’s defeat in the presidential election. He’s become the No. 1 favorite target of leftists.
“In certain [Hollywood] circles he is a shutout,” Urbanski said.
Why would Moore’s former manager be so forthcoming in his criticism?
“Michael Moore makes a substantial living going into peoples’ private lives. Sneaking up on them,” Urbanski said. So Urbanski feels no compunction in talking about the only client he ever fired. In fact, he fired Moore with a 10-page letter.
“A more dishonest and demented person I have never met,” [Emphasis added] Urbanski wrote me in an e-mail, “and I have known a few! And he is more money obsessed than any I have known, and that’s saying a lot.”
It was over due and it couldn’t have happened to a more appropriate person. I hope people remember this when they think back to his ‘documentary’ Bowling for Columbine. And it would be even better if they took back whatever award it was he got for “Best Documentary” for that piece of propaganda.
Shamil Basayev, the mastermind of the taking of the hostages in the Russian school, was interviewed and had this to say:
Mr Basayev states: “We are planning more Beslan-type operations in the future because we are forced to do so.”
Justifying his attacks on civilian targets, he states: “We are at war and we look at the reality, and not at whether the population has weapons in their hands. We look at the reality of their participation in this war.
“ People who approve of Putin’s policies, people who pay their taxes for this war, people who send their soldiers to this war, priests who sprinkle holy water on them . . . How can they be innocent? They are just without weapons. Russian citizens are accomplices of this war, it just may be that they have no weapons in their hands. Peaceful people for us are those that don’t pay taxes for this war, people who don’t participate, and who speak against this war.”
If you paid your taxes then you are a combatant. I presume this is the rational used to justify 9-11 and the beheadings of female aid workers in Iraq too.
Like I said before, if these guys decide to take out a school in the U.S. they should do it in a major city many, many miles from the nearest farm.
It looks like he meets all five of the conditions and he responds just as predicted. He rants:
Iraq is a train wreck. The man who caused it is not in trouble. Tomorrow night he will give his State of the Union speech, and the Washington establishment will applaud him. Tens of thousands of Iraqis are dead. More than 1,400 Americans are dead. An Arab nation is humiliated. Islamic hatred of the West is ignited. The American military is emasculated. Lies define the foreign policy of the United States. On all sides of Operation Iraqi Freedom, there is wreckage. In the center, there are the dead, the maimed, the displaced — those who will be the ghosts of this war for the rest of their days. All for what?
…
The chaos of a destroyed society leaves every new instrument of governance dependent on the American force, even as the American force shows itself incapable of defending against, much less defeating, the suicide legions. The irony is exquisite. The worse the violence gets, the longer the Americans will claim the right to stay. In that way, the ever more emboldened — and brutal — “insurgents” do Bush’s work for him by making it extremely difficult for an authentic Iraqi source of order to emerge. Likewise the elections, which, as universally predicted, have now ratified the country’s deadly factionalism.
I’ve been reading and listening and without doing 2+2=4 type of calculations just getting a gut feel for what is happening and what will happen I have a prediction to make. Prophecy is always tough to get right and it’s easy to end up looking like an idiot. But my guess is that 10 years from now the war we are fighting against the Muslim Jihad warriors will be over and election day, January 30, 2005, in Iraq will be the equivalent of the battle of Gettysburg in the U.S. civil war. The turning point in the war. Although there will still need to be a lot of fighting, deaths, and there will be lots of screaming and wailing by the losers (including the Democrats in our country), the end will known to anyone that studies the problem. There could be something bad things happen, we could still get some nukes detonated in a few of our cities, but the days of the Muslim extremists will be numbered and we will be counting them down.
I don’t know how many people have had the pleasure of meeting Alan Korwin in person but he ranks right up there with Robin Williams in terms of energy and ability to make you laugh. His writing can’t fully communicate his energy but it’s funny and right on in terms of gun rights and how to deal with the gun haters. His latest paper is titled The Last Refuge for Hate: Gun Hate. Here is an excerpt:
… since the bulk of resistance to the American right to arms has its roots in a medical condition, no amount of history, legal analysis, precedent, logic or argument will resolve the issue.
People who are terrified of and hate guns — hoplophobes — don’t care about anything rational, and we waste our time on such arguments. They want guns to go away. They don’t trust guns. They don’t trust people who have guns, and especially people who like guns. The only exception is “official” people with guns, meaning, they’re from the government, a source of relief.
I know, I know, that’s irrational. But that’s the nature of the disease, and it will not be fixed by DOJ reports.
…
Hate is a terrible thing.
It must be confronted vigorously, righteously, and in a forthright manner. Logic and law do not confront hate, or help lessen it. We must learn not to tolerate gun hate, anywhere we find it.
Hoplophobic behavior in government, schools, and all facets of public life must be recognized for what it is, exposed, and rooted out or treated. Seemingly utopian pacifists are free to profess their love of a weapon-free world, but they must start by disarming the evil, criminal and tyrannical. Disarming the general public is a vent for their twisted fear and hatred, a grotesque affront to freedom, and unacceptable.
Guns save lives. Guns stop crime. Guns are why America is still free. The history of freedom is inextricably tied to the development of weapons (an interesting study, by the way, if you have the time to examine it). Good people need guns. Efforts to end that are immoral and unjust, and when done by government, is a direct failure to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution.” That’s a violation of the oath of office, which should lead to removal from office and possibly even criminal charges.
The people we elect or hire for public service should be screened for latent or overt gun hatred, and disqualified if such hatred is found, before it can do any more harm to our nation and its values.
It is well past the time when the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), the catalog of recognized mental infirmities, includes “hoplophobia,” in all its forms, and serious medical research is conducted to identify and treat this pernicious condition that threatens us all. The doctors among you should begin raising this issue. If you’re not a doctor but have one or two, ask them about it.
There’s a lot more. Go read it for yourself and buy some of his books while you are there.
As Ry at Mindless Bit Spew points out there exist people in the gun communitity that have some sort of issue with homosexuals (and others with race). I went to the forum on AR15.com that Ry was complaining about and I sort of lost it. I posted the following:
Is there some connection between firearms and sexual orientation that I am unaware of?
I try my best to recruit people that traditionally vote against gun rights into the gun rights movement and it only takes a few jerks with a random comment here and there to undo everything. Do you want to engage in a civil war to maintain your right to keep and bear arms? Or would you rather subvert the evil party that keeps trying to take our freedoms away?
Examples of some of my efforts:
Palouse Pink Pistols IPSC match
Palouse Pink Pistol Article in local paper
AP version of above story
Seattle Time Editorial based on interview with me
Palouse Pink Pistols website (I’m a charter member)
Missoulia Montana article on Boomershoot
Newsweek article on Boomershoot
Outside Magazine article on BoomershootWhen I talk to liberal reporters and writers I want to be able to dispel their stereotypes of gun owners being red necked, racist, gay-bashers. They think that if we have guns we will shoot people just because we don’t like the color of their skin or because we saw a couple guys holding hands. I want to be able to say that we just want to enjoy our sports, protect our homes, families, and communities. That we aren’t a threat to anyone except those that would do us grave injury. And I feel like I am stabbed in the back when this kind of crap happens. I can spend hundreds of hours on pro-gun activism and have it all pissed away by ONE person talking trash. People believe what they want to believe and if they hear just one person make a derogatory comment or see just one post that confirms their bigoted beliefs about us then my efforts have just been flushed down the toilet.
If you don’t believe me about how fearful they are (to the point of being irrational) take a look at this email I got from a lesbian friend of mine.
I don’t care if you have strong feelings against gays but please don’t express them in the context of firearms. You just shoot us all in the foot when you do that. Please, please, shape up. We are slowly starting to win this war against us and the people on the front lines do NOT appreciate having jerks sticking it to us from the rear.
It’s been quiet over there for several hours now so maybe I made my point. I hope so. I’m still pissed though. I’m going to be cranky for a few days.
Ry, thanks for pointing that out. I know you have mentioned it to me before and I didn’t respond. This time the stars were aligned just so and I got pretty heated up.
Coronation: The ceremony of investing a sovereign with the outward and visible signs of his divine right to be blown skyhigh with a dynamite bomb.
Ambrose Bierce
The Devil’s Dictionary
This is an even more blatant example of When Prophecy Fails related to the ballistic fingerprinting debacle.
Leah Barrett, executive director of CeaseFire Maryland, said police are not using the database enough, instead relying on a national ballistics database that only has ballistics images from crime scenes. As a result, she said, the national database can’t lead investigators directly to the specific firearm that produced a recovered ballistic image unless the gun is eventually recovered.
She said scrapping the state program could deal a setback to better ballistics imaging.
“I think it’s a real tragedy because other states are looking at New York and Maryland to see how we succeed with this,” she said.
“To see how we succeed with this.”???? The possibility it has failed is apparently not in her domain of thought processes.
If you are even the slightest bit ‘connected’ in the gun rights movement you will already know about what happened in Maryland. They implemented a database of fired bullets and shell casings from all new handguns sold in the state.. This was an attempt to track down the owner if a bullet or shell casing were found at the scene of a crime. Gun owners and manufactures told them it wouldn’t work. They did it anyway. Now they find out it didn’t work for all the reasons they were told it wouldn’t work plus some at least one new reason. That reason is that different materials take on the markings differently. Some bullets are made primarily of lead, some have copper jackets, and some even have steel jackets. There are numerous alloys of lead too, some even use silver. Shell casings are made of brass, aluminum, and steel. If the manufacture supplied a bullet and shell casing made of one material and the criminal used another then the chance of a match is greatly reduced.
What amuses me the most about this is that the system failed and they suggest an alternate scheme that I am certain will also fail. I have posted on it here:
This qualifies Maryland for a When Prophecy Fails mention.
Others have commented extensively on the report from Maryland:
I have included the entire Maryland report below for those interested in the details.
2. Integrated Ballistics Information System Remains under Scrutiny
Background
The Maryland Integrated Ballistic Identification System (IBIS), operational since October 1, 2000, provides police investigators with a tool to focus an investigation around a firearm. Chapter 2,
Acts of 2000 (Responsible Gun Safety Act of 2000), required that manufacturers submit a test-fired shell casing with each handgun shipped for resale in the State.
The dealer then sends the casing to the State Police after the gun has been sold. The IBIS system receives the casing from the dealer, and firearms investigators and technicians perform a full analysis of the casing. The investigator uses microscopic technology to identify striations and other markings
that are unique to each individual gun. The striations are formed when the gun is fired, as the firing pin strikes the back of the casing, creating a unique series of identifying marks. The aim of the system is to create a massive database of identifying marks, so that any spent shell casings recovered at a crime scene can be compared against the IBIS database, to try to identify the gun used in the commission of the crime. Based on then-current handgun sales statistics, the State Police anticipated that 30,000 cartridge casings would be received annually for input into the IBIS system. As such, the system was designed to hold around 300,000 casings over a 10-year period.
The system has thus far received around 35,000 cartridge casings for input, including around 2,000 from trooper-issued semi-automatic 40-caliber Beretta firearms. There have been 160 requests to match crime-scene casings with the IBIS system, resulting in four “hits” or matches.
Costs
DSP anticipates continued maintenance supplies and personnel costs of $435,269 for fiscal 2005 to continue to operate the IBIS system. Initial start-up costs of $1.4 million were absorbed in fiscal 2001. IBIS requires one full-time equivalent position to maintain the system. DSP’s Forensic Unit currently assigns three forensic examiners to this program, each devoting one-third of their time to the IBIS system.
Problems
The State Police are concerned about the lack of hits yielded by the IBIS system, and there have been problems with the system. Some of these problems are the result of operational failings and others simply the result of circumstance.
Number of Cartridges Stored – No Link to the National Integrated Ballistics Information Network (NIBIN): Chapter 2 of 2000 included ‘external safety lock’ requirements and the shell casing identification provision. Gun manufacturers were required to add ‘integrated mechanical safety devices’ to firearms, as well as external safety locks to any firearm sold in Maryland.
These two provisions made up an effort by the General Assembly to make the prospects of accidental shootings less likely. These two mechanical requirements, coupled with the requirement to test-fire the gun and submit the cartridge casings, has effectively reduced the number of firearms sold in the State. While DSP had anticipated 30,000 casings submitted annually from 215 qualifying manufacturers, the number of casings received since October 2001 stands at around 34,000 from only 49 manufacturers.
In essence, the guns most often recovered from crime scenes are not sold in Maryland, and therefore, not linked (via cartridge casing) to the IBIS system. DSP has also indicated that .38 mm revolvers are often used in crimes, and these guns are less likely to leave spent shell casings.
The Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) division of the U.S. Treasury Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have a system in place, similar to the Maryland IBIS system. The NIBIN is a system that uses identical technology to IBIS, to create a national database of crime scene shell casings and bullets. However, a memorandum of understanding between the ATF and State and local law enforcement agencies prohibits the linking of NIBIN to any State or local system, such as IBIS. In that the guns used in Maryland crimes are less likely to be sold in Maryland, the inability to link IBIS to NIBIN prevents the largest field of possible matches from being searched.
Time to Crime: The Maryland IBIS system has been in place since October 2000. Criminology research suggests that if a legally obtained firearm is going to enter the stream of criminal activity, it takes between three and six years for this to occur. This ‘time to crime’ statistic indicates that the guns and cartridge casings inventoried in IBIS since 2001 will start to match firearms used in crimes from 2004 to 2007. The statewide deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) inventory saw a similar preliminary waiting period until the number of matches increased dramatically. The DNA database began in 1994, had its first hit in 1998, and has had 72 hits to date. Of these 72 hits, 39 have come in 2003.
Glock Casings Unreliable: It has been learned that cartridge casings submitted by Glock firearms did not match the casings recovered from the same gun at crime scenes. As a result, all cartridge casings submitted by Glock were flagged in the IBIS system, and a list of the guns affected by the problem has been generated. Any firearm sold in Maryland from the list was also flagged. The Glock Company indicated that this problem has since been resolved.
Change in Striations As Firearms Age and Break-in: Research suggests that as firearms age and are broken-in the internal characteristics of the firing pin may change which will result in different striations being left on the spent casings. This makes the casings submitted by the manufacturer less reliable. The more the gun is fired, the more the striations will change.
Modification of Firing Pin by User: Gun users with working knowledge of the assembly process can alter the firing pin of the weapon, which would significantly change the striations left on the cartridge casing.
Different Cartridge Casing Materials Used: There is no standard material used to make cartridge casings. These different materials absorb the striations differently. Additionally, if a different material is used in the manufacture process and by the user, it is possible that a spent cartridge casing will not match the casing stored in IBIS.
Increase in Database Size Decreased Likelihood of “Hit”: As the number of similar guns stored in the database increase, the likelihood of a match decreases. As an example, there are approximately 2,000 cartridge casings from Trooper-issued firearms. Tests have been run, using spent casings from these guns, and the system has not yielded a match in the top 15. However, the more experienced the examiner who inputs the casing, the more likely that the input will be accurate and reflect the unique characteristics of the gun.
Remote IBIS System Failure: DSP purchased a remote IBIS unit to run a search of the found cartridge casings and to submit the findings to the IBIS database to be tested for a match. This device has not worked due to overheating and data transmission problems. The manufacturer has since stopped producing these units. Not only can these casings found at crime scenes not be compared to IBIS while on-site, but DSP cannot link to any other State forensic facility.
Future and Alternatives
A new technology exists to perform a similar task as the IBIS system. This version of nanotechnology creates a ballistic ID or fingerprint on cartridge casings. The technology would create a number or symbol on the firing pin of the weapon, and this marking would be transferred to the cartridge casing each time the gun was fired. However, this technology would have to be done at the manufacturer level and would lead to resistance from the industry. Research suggests, however, that this ballistic fingerprinting method would be less expensive and more accurate than the IBIS, as the “serial number” imprinting removes the subjectivity inherit in digitizing a visual set of striations. DLS recommends that DSP comment on whether, in light of circumstantial difficulties, this program has justified continued operation.